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Wednesday, 24 April 2013

Cologne Chocoladen Museum

To say we were excited about visiting the chocolate museum in Cologne would be an understatment. After being put off of visiting the chocolate museum in Jeju I set my sights on Germany. Obviously not as well known for chocolate as our final destination Brussels, that wasn't going to stop me indulging in the milky brown stuff in both Germany AND Belgium! Skipping over the boring first part of the musuem (about where chocolate we eat nowadays comes from) we headed straight for the 'chocolate fountain'. What. a. let. down. instead of flowing with the lucious molton chocolate we expected, a relatively small amount dribbled out of cocoa bean shapes on a tree-like 'fountain'. I've seen better chocolate fountains at weddings. Pfffff!We stopped to watch a few different types of chocolates being made; custom made bars and rolled truffles. The second part of the museum was more interesting, looking at the different ways of advertising over the years, and the recreation of old style sweet shops. We read about the introduction of chocolate into Europe and how it was first consumed. Afterwards we sat in the cafe for a taste of the good stuff before making our way outside back in Cologne city centre.

It was a particularly nice day, and a celebration marking a milestone in the connection between Cologne and China (I can't remember how long now) was going on outside the cathedral. I had promied myself a pretzel whilst in Germany, and managed to buy one to eat on the train as we left Cologne and made out way to Brussels. Just in time!